In December 2013, Bloomberg LLC (BSEF) submitted a self-certified determination that certain interest rate and credit default swaps are made available to trade (MAT) for purposes of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulations. The CFTC’s Division of Market Oversight has announced that BSEF’s MAT determinations are deemed certified. BSEF’s MAT determination only involves contracts that were previously made available to trade, meaning that the swaps covered by the current determination will remain subject to the trade execution requirement in CEA Section 2(h)(8) even if another swap execution facility (SEF) withdraws its MAT certification.

Counterparties must execute swaps that are subject to the MAT determinations on or pursuant to the rules of a SEF or designated contract market. A swap subject to the MAT determinations cannot be executed over the counter unless one or both of the parties invokes a valid exemption from clearing for the swap, which also operates as an exemption from the trade execution requirement. MAT swaps executed on or pursuant to the rules of an SEF are “required transactions,” and therefore must be executed through either the SEF’s order book or request-for-quote system unless the swap qualifies as a block trade.

DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

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